Last Update: February 13, 2023, 19:32 IST
Ashok Gehlot downplays split in Rajasthan Congress (PTI photo)
PM Modi made a mistake while presenting the Rajasthan budget on Friday, when Gehlot mistakenly read out parts of last year’s budget
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday called his state’s budget a “model” for others to follow and offered to send a copy to the Center a day after the prime minister. Narendra Modi poked fun at a glitch during his budget presentation.
At a rally in Rajasthan’s Dausa on Sunday, Modi lashed out at Friday’s Rajasthan budget presentation after Gehlot mistakenly read out parts of last year’s budget in the assembly. The PM taunted that Congress lacks vision and its announcements remain only on paper.
Gehlot said he rectified his mistake within “34 seconds”, and claimed the BJP was upset with his government’s performance in the Congress-run state in the elections due later this year.
“I can send a copy of the budget to the Prime Minister and he can send it to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They will realize that our budget is a model budget,” the Rajasthan CM told PTI.
The budget we have presented in Rajasthan can become a model budget for the country. We have taken care of all classes, all families. I can claim that such a budget is rare.
During the interview, the chief minister also downplayed the divisions within the Congress in Rajasthan, where he and his former deputy Sachin Pilot are locked in a face-off. Pilot had led a rebellion in 2020 for a leadership change in the state.
Responding to Modi’s allegation at the Dausa rally that the Congress did not develop infrastructure in border areas fearing that the enemy might use the new roads to advance into Indian territory, the chief minister took a dig at the prime minister in the past. Accused of ignoring the work done.
“He talks like this in Parliament as well. He had earlier talked about ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India). He does not see the work done by the Congress governments after independence for the progress and development of the state,” Gehlot said.
The CM claimed that the BJP in Rajasthan is upset with the performance of the state government in health, education, social security and infrastructure development. That’s why BJP is exaggerating the issues.
“I believe this time the mood of the people is to repeat the (Congress) government,” he said.
“We will go in public after the budget session and talk about the performance of our government,” he said.
He was asked about the series of public meetings held by Sachin Pilot last month, which was seen by some as an attempt by the young politician to promote himself. Gehlot replied that if every leader enters the fray, it only helps the party.
He said that people should be made aware of the party’s performance and policies. “We will all contest the elections together,” he said.
Gehlot did not pay attention to the division in Rajasthan Congress. Instead, he claimed that it is the BJP which is facing the problem. There is no other state in the country where there is such a huge rift in the BJP. He expressed confidence of retaining power in the assembly elections, relying on the work done by his government in the last four years.
The CM hailed the state budget as an example of “good governance”, which he said included corona virus Management and implementation of welfare schemes.
The budget includes a number of benefits for the poor. Gehlot said that when BJP governments make such announcements, they are not ‘rewdis’, but it is said that when their government does so.
We have tried to give a big relief to the common man from inflation. The time has come when governments should think about giving social security to the people,” he said while reiterating the demand that the Center should bring a law for this.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)